Gitmo hunger strike: Timeline

A mass hunger strike has been unfolding in the notorious Guantanamo Bay prison for over three months now. RT has been badgering the UN, prison officials, detainees’ attorneys and activists to get a full account of the situation.

October 19

02:08 GMT: A Canadian judge denied Friday a request by
former Guantanamo Bay detainee Omar Khadr for transfer from a
maximum security federal penitentiary.

Khadr was seeking to move to a provincial facility, as his
lawyers argued that the Canadian government was illegally holding
Khadr as an adult for offenses committed as a juvenile.

The Edmonton judge upheld Khadr’s status in a federal prison
based on the International Transfer of Offenders Act that
governed his transfer to Canada from the US Navy prison at
Guantanamo Bay.

Khadr, 27, was 15 when he was shot and captured by US Special
Forces in Afghanistan. He pleaded guilty in 2010 to five war
crimes - spying, conspiracy, providing material support,
attempted murder and murder of a US soldier in the 2002
firefight. A plea deal offered him a return to Canada to serve
the rest of an eight-year sentence.

October 18

22:27 GMT: A US appeals court showed openness Friday to allowing Guantanamo
Bay hunger strikers to challenge force-feeding procedures.
Defense attorneys call the method inhumane, but the Obama
administration says it is needed to keep order at the prison.

Two judges on a three-judge panel were skeptical of claims made
by government lawyers that the US Court of Appeal for the
District of Columbia Circuit had no jurisdiction over the prison
at a US Navy base in
Cuba.

The judges indicated that lower courts should allow detainees to
challenge forced feedings. A decision is likely weeks or months
away, yet their posture leaves open the possibility for a new
challenge to how the US treats Guantanamo prisoners.

October 17

11:40 GMT: In its decade long-existence, the
Guantanamo Bay detention camp has been much discussed and often
reviled – but rarely seen. In this special report, RT’s Anastasia
Churkina was granted access to the world’s most infamous prison. (VIDEO)

October 13

00:37 GMT:Guantanamo guards were conducting regular night raids on inmates’
cells, putting prisoners in solitary confinement and manipulating
temperature in the cells to force an end to the months’ long
hunger strike in the camp, detainees claim.

Details of alleged
mistreatment have emerged from declassified letters and
interviews published by the lawyers of some of the 164 men who
remain in the US facility on Cuba.

October 10

09:01 GMT: The Pentagon has launched a new board to review the threat
posed by prisoners held without charge at Guantanamo military
prison. The move is aimed at aiding the eventual closure of the
facility, a goal that the Obama administration has failed to
achieve.

October 5

06:00 GMT: A federal judge has ordered
the US to release a Guantanamo Bay prisoner Ibrahim Idris of
Sudan suffering from mental illness who has spent much of his 11
years at the prison in a psychiatric ward.

September 27

01:56 GMT: A US military request for funding to
renovate the prison base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba was denied by Pentagon officials in the Obama
administration who, while pledging to close the prison, have been
consistently prevented from doing so by Congress.

September 7

02:57 GMT: A US demonstrator was force-fed through a
nasal tube in front of the White House in an effort to show
that the procedure used at Guantanamo Bay is torture.

Andres Thomas Conteris, weakened by a 61-day fast, went through
with the force-feeding in order to raise awareness of the issue
and encourage other Americans to speak out against the
procedure.

The procedure, dubbed “enteral feeding,” is used on hunger
strikers at the Guantanamo Bay. US authorities argue that the
process is merely uncomfortable – not torturous.

02:56 GMT: As of Saturday, there are 22 detainees on
hunger strike - eight less than the day before - with 20 on the
enteral feeding list, deputy director of Guantanamo public
affairs, Lieutenant Colonel Samuel E. House, said in a letter
to RT.

August 29

23:03 GMT: The US announced the release of two detainees
from the prison at Guantanamo Bay to their home nation of
Algeria, bringing the total number of detainees at the prison to
164. Nabil Said Hadjarab and Mutia Sadiq Ahmad Sayyab were
approved for transfer based on a review directed by President
Obama. Hadjarab had been detained for 12 years, his lawyer told
the Guardian, and was cleared for release in 2007. He took part
in the ongoing hunger strike at the prison. More than 37
detainees remain on hunger strike, according to the US military.

August 28

00:38 GMT: Young Guantanamo Bay military personnel get a
crash-course briefing on the events of 9/11 and how they connect
to the prison, ProPublica reported.

A Freedom of Information Act request shows the FBI gives the
briefings armed with a presentation including details about the
hijackings, videos of the World Trade Center and recordings of
9-1-1 calls from the towers. The FBI said they withheld nine
slides of the presentation “to protect law enforcement tactics.”
Five detainees are currently on trial at Gitmo for the 9/11
attacks.

August 23

19:03 GMT: Despite military claims that the number of
hunger strikers in Guantanamo is decreasing, it is still
“grand in duration and in size,” Carlos Warner, lawyer for
several inmates told RT.

He says the data coming from the prison authorities is
“unreliable” as “we don’t know what the military use as their
metric to say that somebody isn’t hunger striking.”

18:57 GMT: As the hunger strike entered its 200th day, 37
inmates continued to refuse food, with 33 of them being subjected
to force feeding, Guantanamo officials said. The only
hunger-striking prisoner, who was previously being treated in the
detainee’s hospital, has now been returned to his cell.

August 19

16:00 GMT: The existence of the infamous Guantanamo Bay
detention center in Cuba - where detainees serve life sentences
for terrorism - violates human rights, German human rights
commissioner Markus Loening told German news agency Deutsche
Presseagentur on Monday. He also stressed that Gitmo brings into
disrepute Washington and its allies, with Germany among them.
Those fighting to close Gitmo have a valid case, because
prisoners are kept there illegally, Loening added. Germany has
already granted admission to three ex-Guantanamo prisoners.

August 18

21:36 GMT: Defense lawyers for 9/11 detainees held at
Guantanamo Bay are resisting a push by US military prosecutors to
rush through controversial evidence and start the trial in
September 2014. The decision of the military judge could hinge on
how deeply the defense is allowed to delve into details of the
defendants’ treatment in CIA prisons – before they were brought
to Guantanamo. The defense lawyers are protesting that
prosecutors have not handed over the most contentious evidence,
and are trying to railroad the hearings through without proper time for the defense to review the
prosecution’s evidence.

August 12

20:20 GMT: The detainees at Guantanamo Bay have been
requesting books written by bestselling author John Grisham, best
known for his legal thrillers such as “The Firm.” However,
about two months ago some of them were banned by the US military
due to "impermissible content," Grisham wrote in an Op-Ed
article for The Guardian on Monday.

August 10

22:05 GMT: A former MI6 officer will begin a week long
hunger strike on Monday in solidarity with Shaker Aamer, the last
inmate of Guantanamo with British residency. Harry Ferguson, 52,
says he is motivated by shame over the behavior of the British
intelligence service he once served. Ferguson said
that claims that British intelligence officers were covertly
campaigning for Aamer not to be repatriated to the UK were the
final straw. Aamer is the leading witness in a British police
investigation that MI6 were present while Aamer was being
tortured.

Ferguson's hunger strike is part of a campaign by the human
rights charity Reprieve to support Guantanamo bay hunger-strikers
by getting supporters to give up food temporarily. Stafford
Smith, Aamer's lawyer, as well as actress Julie Christie and
comedian Frankie Boyle are among those who have so far completed
a hunger strike in support of Aamer.

August 9

10:00 GMT: Activists calling for closure of Guantanamo Bay
prison have launched an online clock, which counts the time since
President Obama’s latest promise to set free inmates whom the US
cleared for release. So far all of the 86 men remain
incarcerated.

August 6

20:30 GMT: Moscow has again tried to secure permission for
its delegation to visit Ravil Mingazov - the only Russian citizen
at Guantanamo, who was arrested in Pakistan in 2002 but presented
with no official charge. The Russian Foreign Ministry’s
representative for human rights, Konstantin Dolgov, said in June
that US authorities have not been doing what is in their power to
arrange access. He told RIA Novosti on Monday that "we have
again put forth that question, and we remain hopeful of progress
on the matter and that the US State Department, together with the
Pentagon, will play their part and secure a visit for the Russian
delegation."

05:00 GMT: The Guantanamo hunger strike has hit the sixth
month mark, with more than 60 inmates continuing to starve. Many
of the hunger strikers continue to be force fed, a practice that
the UN human rights commission classifies as torture. At its peak
more than two-thirds of Guantanamo’s 166 prisoners refused food.
In addition to human rights error and the ongoing urging of
President Obama, the escalating cost of keeping dozens of men
locked up indefinitely could finally prompt that sort of
response, especially during an era of sequestering that has
stripped the Pentagon of much of its funding this year already. A
little more than a week ago, an analysis, first provided to
Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel and made public last week,
concluded that the cost of keeping the Pentagon open will amount
to more than $5 billion by the end of 2014. Read more in RT's story.

August 3

6:20 GMT: Moscow has so far not been able to negotiate the
terms for its delegation to visit Guantanamo Bay to meet Ravil
Mingazov, the only Russian citizen being detained at the
facility. Russia-US talks over the issue have reached a deadlock,
with Washington claiming Mingazov does not want to see Russian
diplomats. The inmate’s attorney says his client is not against
the meeting, but wants lawyers to be present, a condition which
US authorities do not allow.

Moscow has persistently insisted on the visit, according to the
Foreign Ministry's Commissioner for Human Rights Konstantin
Dolgov.

"It’s important to us to assess the overall situation and to
what extent human rights are being violated – and we know they
are in that prison. The inmates over there have been on a hunger
strike for months. We are witnessing a legal vacuum, as there’s a
whole bunch of serious human rights issues,” the Russian
daily Kommersant cites him as saying.

August 2

15:15 GMT: Protesters have taken to the streets of the
Yemeni capital Sana'a to vent their anger at the detention of
dozens of Yemini nationals held in Guantanamo. Protesters
gathered outside the home of president Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi on
Friday demanding that Yemini nationals be released from the
camp.

7:15 GMT: Shaker Aamer, the last British resident
imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay, says he suffers from regular
assaults, including those of a sexual nature, from the guards.

“I refuse to do what they tell me, even though I know I am
about to get beaten up,” Aamer said in the phone call, which
was published Thursday by British newspaper The Independent.
“Sometimes, you just have to make a stand, however pointless
that stand might seem to be.”

He added that guards sexually assaulted inmates during searches,
in what the prisoners call “a Gitmo massage.”

Aamer has been imprisoned in the facility for almost 11 years
without being formally charged.

August 1

15:34 GMT: Five more detainees have ended their
hunger strike, reducing the number of strikers to 61, according
to Guantanamo officials. There are 166 detainees at the facility,
and 42 of them are still being subjected to force feeding. Two
hunger-striking inmates are being monitored in the detainee
hospital, but are not suffering from any life-threatening
conditions.

July 26

“We are taking this step in consultation with Congress, and in
a responsible manner that protects our national security,”
the statement said.
“We continue to call on Congress to join us in supporting these
efforts by lifting the current restrictions that significantly
limit our ability to transfer detainees out of Guantanamo, even
those who have been approved for transfer,” Carney
added.

Currently, eighty-six of the 166 Guantanamo detainees are still
held in the US prison despite being cleared for release.

Sixty-eight Gitmo prisoners are taking part in the ongoing hunger
strike in protest against their indefinite detention, with 44
detainees being force-fed, according to prison officials.

July 20

A US government official has notified the lawyers of Guantanamo prison
detainees that their clients who can neither be prosecuted nor
released will have their cases reviewed to decide on their
indefinite detention, investigative reporter Jason Leopold wrote
on The Freedom of the Press Foundation website.

According to an email obtained by Leopold that was sent to
attorneys from periodic review secretariat director retired Navy
Rear Admiral Norton C. Joerg, “a new Periodic Review Board
(PRB) process will review the continued detention of certain
detainees to assess whether continued law of war detention is
necessary to protect against a continuing significant threat to
the security of the United States.”

The Board is set to determine the level of “threat” for
each individual, and decide if their detention needs to continue,
Joerg was quoted as saying. It will not, however, address whether
the Gitmo prisoners’ “law of war” detention is legal.

This comes some two years after the US President Barack Obama
signed an executive order to form a parole board to begin
reviewing the prisoners’ cases.

July 19

09:00 GMT: The controversial British comic Frankie Boyle
has gone on hunger strike in support of Shaker Aamer, the last
British detainee in Guantanamo. Boyle took over from the human
rights lawyer Clive Stafford Smith, who represents Mr. Aamer, and
had been on hunger strike for a week. Boyle donated £50,000 he
won in a libel action against the Daily Mirror to Aamer’s legal
fund in December last year.

July 18

20:32 GMT: The latest update from the Guantanamo prison
reveals 75 detainees are designated as hunger strikers. Forty six
of those are being force-fed. Three inmates that are on hunger
strike are being monitored in the hospital, one of which is
approved for enteral feeds. None of the hospitalized prisoners
have a life threatening condition.

July 17

20:56 GMT: Groin searches at the Guantanamo Bay prison
camp have been allowed to continue on a temporary basis, a
federal appeals court ruled on Wednesday.

The court allowed an emergency motion for a temporary delay in
enforcing last week’s ruling by Judge Royce Lamberth’s forbidding
the act, calling the searches “religiously and culturally
abhorrent.” Lamberth said that searches were carried out to
deter detainees’ access to lawyers and not to enhance security at
the facility.

The US government argued that Lamberth’s ruling will reduce
security at Guantanamo by making it easier to smuggle contraband
into the facility.

19:19 GMT: Two more detainees have agreed to accept food,
bringing the number of hunger strikers to seventy eight, said Lt.
Col. Samuel E. House, deputy director of public affairs at
Guantanamo Bay.There are 166 detainees at Guantanamo Bay, while
46 of the hunger strikers are still subjected to force
feeding. Three hunger striking prisoners are being observed in
the detainee hospital, but do not have any life threatening
conditions. Three hunger striking prisoners are being observed in
the detainee hospital, but do not have any life threatening
conditions, House stated.

July 14

18:23 GMT:Another 15
Guantanamo detainees have accepted food, giving up their ongoing
hunger strike. As of Sunday, 81 of Guantanamo’s 166 detainees
were being tracked as hunger strikers, with 45 of those on the
enteral feed list. Three hunger striking detainees are being
observed in the detainee hospital, one of which is receiving
enteral feed, Lt. Col. Samuel E. House, deputy director of
public affairs at Guantanamo Bay, told RT.

July 13

17:17 GMT:As of
Saturday, there are 166 detainees at Guantanamo Bay. Ninety-six
detainees are participating in the hunger strike, 45 of whom are
on the enteral feed list. Three hunger striking prisoners are
being observed in the detainee hospital, but do not have any life
threatening conditions, Lt. Col. Samuel E. House, deputy director
of public affairs at Guantanamo Bay, told RT.

04:02 GMT:Nearly all of the Guantanamo Bay inmates
participating in a hunger strike have continued eating, US military officials said Friday, in a
possible indication that their protest has improved the immediate
conditions of their indefinite imprisonment.

The military said that 99 of the 102 hunger strikers have
consumed a meal within the past 24 hours, bringing a possible
end to the nearly six-month-long demonstration meant to focus
international attention on the inmates’ detentions.

July 12

13:07 GMT: According to Guantanamo Bay officials, two of
the detainees ended their hunger strike bringing the number of
strikers to 102 out of 166 detainees in the facility.

Forty-five are subjected to force feeding, while three hunger
strikers are monitored in the prison’s hospital, one which is
‘approved for enteral feeds.’ The prison officials state
that none of the detainees in hospital care have any life
threatening conditions.

July 11

08:20 GMT: Human rights lawyer and long-time
anti-Guantanamo campaigner Clive Stafford Smith has embarked on
his own hunger strike in solidarity with the prisoners. He
pledges to do it for 7-10 days and is hoping that other prominent
people will take up the baton.

“It’s very important for us to understand a little bit of the
suffering those people are going through,” Smith said, adding
he was especially grateful to rapper Mos Def, who had courage to be filmed having
a tube stuck up his nose.

“What I’m doing is minimal compared to what those prisoners
are going through there. I’ve been on a hunger strike for 24
hours and they’ve been doing it for five months. Of course, it’s
not the same, but I do think there are some famous people who are
going to join me in doing this and I think hopefully that’s going
to get attention on the prisoners’ plight there,” Smith told
RT.

July 10

00:10 GMT: Two
influential US senators have written to President Obama, asking
that he direct the Pentagon to halt the force-feeding of
Guantanamo detainees in all cases, unless medically necessary to
save a detainee’s life.

The joint letter by Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin and
Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, two of the
biggest proponents of shutting down the prison camp and both
Democrats, also quoted Monday’s federal ruling which determined
that only the president has the necessary authority to halt the
force-feedings.

“US military personnel serving
at Guantanamo are doing an excellent job under difficult
circumstances, but they are being asked to carry out an
unsustainable policy of indefinite detention because Congress and
the Executive Branch have failed to resolve this problem,”
the senators wrote.

“The growing problem of hunger
strikes is due to the fact that many detainees have remained in
legal limbo for more than a decade and have given up
hope,” they add.

According to Wednesday’s letter, Senator Feinstein also wrote to
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel last month asking the Pentagon to
reevaluate its policy. Feinstein says she has yet to receive a
response from Hagel.

July 9

9:36 GMT: Only President Barack Obama has the authority to
halt the practice of force feeding prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, a
US judge has stated. Judge Gladys Kessler ruled she would be overreaching
her authority by issuing an injunction against the practice.

July 8

13:19 GMT: Islamic leaders have called on US President Barack Obama to end
force-feeding of the Guantánamo prisoners during the Ramadan
fast, which is scheduled to start on July, 8, and end on August,
7. As Ramadan starts, the issue of force-feeding “is becoming
increasingly embarrassing for the US government; it's about time
President Obama took a brave decision to end this in a way that
would be appreciated around the Islamic world," an Islamic
community leader in Britain, Dr Azzam Tamimi, told The Guardian.
According to the Guantánamo spokesperson, the fast of Ramadan
will be observed by synchronizing the force-feeding of Muslim
inmates to the Ramadan fast schedule.

July 6

13:10 GMT: “The detainees are looking for real
concrete signs their needs are being met and not ignored. An easy
way to do that is to begin to send the cleared Yemenis back home
to Yemen where their government wants them,”Morris
Davis, the former Chief prosecutor for terrorism trials at
Guantanamo, told RT.

04:00 GMT: As the hunger strike in Guantanamo enters
the 150 day, military attorney, Lt. Col. Barry Wingard tells RT
that his client’s health is quickly deteriorating. “He feels
very much pain” Wingard says as the guards “started to
force-feed liquid through his skull into his stomach.”

To play down the force-feeding methods, Washington has hired a
group of public relations professionals that tell lies. “They
get new media people every Monday. They stay there from Monday –
Friday. They never talk to a prisoner and they report an
incomplete story that the military wants them to report,” the
lawyer says.

“Guantanamo Bay is not about justice. It’s never been about
justice and the fact that they’ve done 7 proceedings in eleven
and a half years. It will never be about justice. We are a
million miles behind hypocrisy in Guantanamo Bay.”

Wingard argues that two things at this point can help the
situation in Guantanamo, the first one being public pressure and
“habeas petitions being refilled once American forces withdraw
from Afghanistan in 2014.”

The attorney concludes that since 98 percent of Gitmo inmates
have no charges against them, to “say we can’t release them
because they might do something in the future is completely
ridiculous.”

July 5

Despite public outcry and
annual spending of around $150 million, Obama is in no hurry to
keep his promise of shutting down Guantanamo Bay. RT's Irina
Galushko has looked into the possible reasons which cause the US
president to keep the notorious detention facility operational.

“They want to be heard. They want to speak out against the
force feeding. They want to be either tried or released.
President Obama himself as the commander-in-chief of the US, he
has the power to stop it. We’re hoping that he does,”
Eisenberg told RT.

Video:
/files/news/1e/5e/f0/00/original_1git_lawyer.asf
Doctor Frank Arnold of the Medact organization believes that
GITMO medics are being negligent and abusive towards the
detainees only because they're following orders from the
military.
“The regime, which the joint task force for Guantanamo has
written for the treatment of these people requires truly abusive
care and also involves the use of medicines, which are
dangerous,” he stressed. “They aren’t allowed to behave
like doctors and are compelled by the military hierarchy to
behave like jailors.”

Video:
/files/news/1e/5e/f0/00/original_1git_doct.asf
RT looks into how the controversial force-feeding procedure is
being carried out at Guantanamo Bay. The US government says the
procedure exists in order to prevent the deaths of prisoners, and
that it is done in the most humane way possible. However, inmates
describe force-feeding as “cruel punishment” which causes
pain they have “never experienced” before.

Video:
/files/news/1e/5e/f0/00/original_1git_feed.asf
Former Guantanamo prison guard Terry Holdbrooks told RT that a
claim from one of the inmates that he and other prisoners are
being sexually assaulted is highly feasible, because it’s a way
for some the staff to retaliate against Muslims for the 9/11
attacks.

“Korans would be either thrown in a toilet or thrown on the
ground or mistreated in some other form. That happened often, and
aggressive searches of detainee persons happened as well,” he
said.

“There are soldiers in the Army, in the Navy, Air Force,
Marines, etc., who think that if they kill an Arab, mistreat a
Muslim, or abuse a detainee that it’s going to somehow balance
the score for 9/11,” the former guard explained.

The hunger strike at
Guantanamo Bay has entered its 150th day. 166 detainees are still
being held at the prison, 106 of whom are on hunger strike. 45
prisoners are on enteral feeds, according to prison
authorities.

July 4

Younous Chekkouri who spent 11 years in Guantanamo accused the US military of sexually assaulting
inmates under the guise of maintaining security.

“The searches, as they like to call them, are spreading fear
and shame. Eight guards with the watch commander surround me in
one room, while two of them put their hands all over me. The
sexual assault hasn’t just happened to me. Why are they doing
this? That’s what I’d like to know,” he said in a letter to
his lawyer obtained by media.

July 3

While a mass hunger strike continues at Guantanamo, Navy Capt.
Robert Durand confirmed that the prison camp is sufficiently
equipped to synchronize the force-feeding of inmates to the
Ramadan fast schedule. Capt. Durand’s comments were reported by
the Miami Herald, while also noting that this will be the twelfth
Ramadan in American captivity for most Guantánamo detainees. The
fast is set to begin at sunset on Monday.

“We understand that observing
the daytime fast and taking nothing by mouth or vein is an
essential component of Muslim observance of Ramadan,”
Durand said.

“And for those detainees on
hunger strike we will ensure that our preservation of life
through enteral feeding does not violate the tenets of their
faith.”

July 2

Officials say that 106 detainees are still being tracked as
hunger strikers, with 45 of those on the enteral feed list. Three
of the detainees are being observed in the detainee hospital, one
of which is on the enteral feed list. The detainees in the
hospital do not currently have any life threatening conditions,
according to Lt. Col. Samuel E. House.

July 1

Lawyers of four Guantanamo detainees filed a motion with the US district court in
Washington to stop the force-feeding practice. The defense team
claims that this practice is unethical and prevents their client
from practicing their religion, guaranteed under the Geneva
conventions. The prisoners have also attached affidavits stating
that they understand the danger of hunger striking and do so
voluntarily.

June 30

Guantanamo officials are still reporting that 106 of the 166
Guantanamo detainees are hunger striking. Two have now been
hospitalized as a result of the strike. Officials report that
neither of the two admitted on Saturday are in a life-threatening
condition. 44 are still being force fed.

June 29

Guantanamo prison guards and medical staff are facing accusations
that they deviated from procedure when treating detainees,
contributing to an inmate's suicide in at least one case.

Al Jazeera has obtained a copy of a US military report
investigating the September 2012 suicide of Adnan Latif, a
31-year-old detainee who was incorrectly treated for a severe
psychological disorder. The report's authors claim guards and
medical staff at the prison camp chose not to follow the rules on
handling difficult inmates.

Latif, a Yemeni national, was able to stockpile prescription
medications in his cell as a result, the report says, which would
have been impossible had prison staff stuck to protocol.

Before his detention Latif was seeking medical help for a head
injury that had supposedly caused brain damage. He is also
reported to have had "outstanding mental health issues,"
according to Al Jazeera.

Mark Mason, an anthropologist at the University of California,
questions the fact that the President has enough power to launch
drone strikes, but not enough to close Guantanamo.

June 28

As of Friday there are 106 out of 166 detainees on hunger strike,
with 44 being forced-fed. There are currently no detainees being
observed on the hospital, deputy director of Guantanamo public
affairs Lieutenant Colonel, Samuel E. House told RT.

June 26

An activist who has been protesting the continuous operation of
the Guantanamo Bay military detention facility was arrested Wednesday after climbing over the fence on
the north lawn of the White House.

Diane Wilson, a member of the activism group Code Pink, was
arrested Wednesday afternoon in Washington, according to the
organization’s official Twitter account.

June 25

105 detainees are now on hunger strike at Guantanamo Bay, the
highest number the military has acknowledged since the protest
began in February. Of those, 44 are being force-fed via a tube
which has been pushed through the nasal cavity and down the
esophagus to the stomach.

June 22

June 21

The hunger strike at Guantanamo will last until those inmates
cleared for release leave, a lawyer working on several
Guantanamo cases has told RT. All of Cori Crider’s clients object to being
force-fed, she says.

The lawyer argues that an independent team of doctors
should be allowed access to the detention facility to assess
the prisoners’ mental health.

“None of our hunger striking clients trust the doctors. They
tried again and again to raise these issues with the medical
staff. They say, ‘I reject this feeding, I reject being
medicated. Why are you involving yourself with this practice?’
And the military doctors just shrug and say ‘I just have to
follow orders’, so yes I hope that the military and certainly
the commander in chief will take the request seriously,”
Crider said.

June 20

If the detainee hunger strike
continues in Guantanamo, participants will most likely face
irreversible organ damage and eventually death, Terry Kupers, a
psychiatrist and consultant for Human Rights Watch told RT.

Force-feeding prisoners during
a voluntary hunger strike is considered an abuse of the
Hippocratic Oath, and also contradicts medical ethics. This
aggravated assault will result in “permanent psychological
damage,” Kupers warned.

June 19

Over 150 doctors and medical
professionals have signed an open letter to US President Barack
Obama calling for the hunger-striking prisoners to receive independent medical care.

The letter, published in the
Lancet medical journal, states that the detainees have "very
good reason" not to trust the facility’s medical staff, who
are required to follow the orders of their military
commanders.

“Without trust, safe and
acceptable medical care of mentally competent patients is
impossible,” the letter said. “Since the detainees do not trust
their military doctors, they are unlikely to comply with
current medical advice. That makes it imperative for them to
have access to independent medical examination and advice, as
they ask, and as required by the UN and World Medical
Association.”

June 19

US President Barack Obama has said that he still wants to close
the Guantanamo Bay prison facility, but has been faced with
resistance from Congress that has stifled his efforts.

“We cannot have a permanent outpost in which they are being
held even as we are ending a war in Afghanistan that triggered
the capture of some of these detainees in the first place,”
Obama told a news conference in Berlin, held jointly with German
Chancellor Angela Merkel.

“We must not be so driven by fear that we change the fabric of
society in ways we don't intend and we do not want for the
future. I think closing Guantanamo is an example of us getting
out of that perpetual war mentality,” Obama said.

June 17

For the first time since President Obama took office Washington
has publicly disclosed the names of inmates at the Guantanamo Bay
prison camp classified as “indefinite detainees” - those who pose
too great a threat to release but cannot be tried in court.

Meanwhile, the US State Department is set to announce a new
lawyer to oversee the closure of the infamous Guantanamo Bay
prison facility. Cliff Sloan, a Washington lawyer, will take on
the post, according to sources familiar with the decision. Sloan
has previously served with all three branches of the government
and worked on cases in both state and federal courts.

June 13

Doctors at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp should refuse to
participate in the force-feeding of hunger strikers since such an
activity is a political statement, not a medical condition
argued Drs. George Annas, Sondra Crosby and
Leonard Glantz in the prestigious New England Journal of
Medicine.

“Hunger striking is a peaceful political activity to protest
terms of detention or prison conditions; it is not a medical
condition, and the fact that hunger strikers have medical
problems that need attention and can worsen does not make hunger
striking itself a medical problem,” the senior professors
from Boston University wrote.

Physicians stationed at Guantanamo Bay, the authors write, are
sacrificing their ethical obligations by permitting the military
to “use them and their medical skills for political
purposes.”

June 9

Republican Senator and former prisoner of war John McCain said
there is increasing domestic support to shut down the military
detention facility at Guantanamo Bay and relocate the detainees
to a facility within the continental United States.

"There's renewed impetus. And I think that most Americans are
more ready," McCain, who visited Guantanamo last week
alongside White House chief of staff Denis McDonough and
California Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein, told CNN's "State
of the Union" program.

McCain, a ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee,
said he and Republican Senator Lindsey Graham were working with
the White House on plans which could see detainees transferred to
a maximum-security prison in Illinois.

"We're going to have to look at the whole issue, including
giving them more periodic review of their cases," McCain
continued.

June 7

President Obama‘s chief of staff, Denis McDonough, along with
Senators Feinstein and McCain traveled to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba on
Friday to review the current situation and discuss steps towards
closing the detention facility. Shortly after their tour
concluded, the three released a statement, though it made no
mention of the ongoing hunger strike now involving 104 of the 166
detainees, 41 of which are now being force-fed. “We intend to
work, with a plan by Congress and the Administration together, to
take the steps necessary to make that [closing] happen,” said the
trio via statement.